Number of Cabinet rank ministers swells to 52

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 January 2007, 17:19 GMT]The number of cabinet rank ministers in United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government of Sri Lanka rose to fifty-two with the swearing in of Amarasiri Dodangoda who took oaths as Minister of Justice before Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday afternoon, political sources in Colombo said. Fifty-one cabinet rank ministers took oaths Sunday morning in the Presidential Secretariat. 38 parliamentarians have been appointed non-cabinet ministers and 16 deputy ministers. Including the cabinet rank ministers, total number of ministers and deputies in the UPFA government is 103.

New Cabinet Ministers

The parliamentary strength of the government has increased to 113 with the induction of 18 UNP dissidents and 6 SLMC parliamentarians.

The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and SLMC dissidents had earlier joined the government.

The strength of the opposition has decreased to 112 from 130. The new opposition is comprised of 43 parliamentarians from the UNP, 38 from Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), 9 Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and 22 Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

The parliamentary strength of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) has decreased to 43 from 61.